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If the Shoe Fits, Click It

MADE-TO-MEASURE'' refers to a tailor-made shirt, suit or gown, something that was once available only to the wealthy few. In time, that custom fit may be readily available to the average mall shopper as well, thanks to three-dimensional body scans. Within a year or so, experts say, some consumers are likely to find such computer scans available at a handful of locations ranging from the Mall of America to Fifth Avenue.

Technology being developed in the fashion industry in the United States and abroad is likely to make so-called mass customization a reality rather than an oxymoron. ''We have the capability,'' said Stephen Gray, head of the Computer Clothing Research Center at Nottingham Trent University in England. ''If people have been through our body scanners, we can have their data on a smart card that gives the retailer all the information necessary to fit the individuals, who can, in turn, use the Internet to look at fabrics and position the garment on a personalized mannequin of their body type.''

Right now, body scanners can be found mainly at a few research sites and special effects studios. While clothing manufacturers and retailers are intensely interested in the new technology, they are aware of the many roadblocks on the way to consumer acceptance.

One problem is what Dick Yardley, a manufacturing technology specialist at the American Apparel Manufacturers Association, calls the modesty factor: ''Some people don't want everyone to see what they look like in a skintight body stocking.'' There are, too, the inevitable glitches that will occur when consumers trust the same technology to design their clothes that has created a new meaning for the word ''bug'' and threatens worldwide disruptions in 2000.

''The technology is amazing,'' said Andree Conrad, editor of Apparel Industry Magazine, ''but inevitably problems will occur. And, granted that the fit is far better than off-the-rack, will consumers be willing to pay for it? The American public is so price-conscious that it has pushed the cost of garments way down. Is it actually going to say, 'I'm willing to pay 20 percent more for a good fit?' Right now, what they're willing to do is take 40 garments into the waiting room and try them all on -- and then say how much they hate to shop when they get home.''

Eric Blackwood, a vice president at J. C. Penney, the nationwide chain of department stores, agrees that price is the defining issue for the American market. ''Europeans are willing to spend more for their clothing than Americans,'' he said. ''When you customize, the cost is higher. We think the scanners have tremendous potential, but it's not going to happen tomorrow for us. We have to refine the process to get the scanning and manufacturing costs down to what the customer is willing to pay and shrink the scanners, too. The amount of square footage they take up is not economical.''

Still, problems and all, manufacturers and retailers, many of them in the high-end office-clothes market, are starting to come forward to embrace the body scanner, bulky though it may be, although few have yet bought. Homi Patel, president and chief operating officer of the Hartmarx Corporation -- which includes Hart, Schaffner & Marx, a major manufacturer of men's clothing in the United States -- is working with a research and training operation in Cary, N.C., that has developed its own scanner. That organization, called [TC]2 (for the Textile/Clothing Technology Corporation; it is pronounced tee cee squared) involves more than 100 clothing manufacturers, including J. C. Penney.

''Probably we'll work with department stores to have scanning equipment available and then connected directly into our management information systems to develop custom garments at quick speeds,'' Mr. Patel said. ''True, the scanning machines won't have the charm of a good salesman, but people will get acclimatized. Young people will have no trouble; older people will need more time.''

Even if body scanning is slow to spread to mass markets, accurate information on body shape could have a profound effect on the clothing industry. ''Even in the shops,'' Mr. Gray said, ''fit is going to be better as we acquire more accurate data about our body shapes.''

Those interested in the new technology of digital fashion include Edith Gazzuolo, who expects to operate her scanner at the Mall of America, near Minneapolis; Kathryn Chase, a chemical engineer and ardent seamstress who hopes to open her own scanning parlor at an Atlanta shopping center, and Brooks Brothers, the home of the button-down shirt.

Brooks Brothers has had striking success in the past year with its fledgling computer-assisted shirt-customization program, which began last August. Joe Dixon, a senior vice president for manufacturing at Brooks Brothers, said, ''If you have the ability to give people exactly what they want, it's a differentiator.''

For now, customers for custom shirts are fitted the traditional way, with a tape measure. Then software adapts the standard Brooks Brothers pattern to specific measurements -- for example, making one sleeve longer than the other -- before the material is cut and sewn. Delivery is promised in about two to three weeks; prices start at $75.

''We were pleasantly surprised by the level of business we've generated,'' Mr. Dixon said. ''We started with a catalogue announcement, and only recently rolled the program out to all the stores. We are already seeing a nice uptake.'' He said he expected the special-order business to grow. ''We're working with a couple of companies on body scanners,'' Mr. Dixon said, ''and when we think it's right for us, we'll go ahead. There's no doubt scanning works for made-to-measure. We just need to make sure that when a customer comes in and has to strip to underwear that the customer really wants to do that.''

Levi Strauss, the jeans maker, has had a custom-fit program for women's jeans for several years, using measurements taken by employees. Ike Behar, a high-end shirt company that has boutiques in Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and many other stores, does about 20 percent of its business in custom-fitted shirts but does not use scanners yet. Alan Behar, president of the company, said: ''Body scanning is going to become a necessity. The shirt is the closest thing to the body. The shoulder, chest and arm holes are particularly difficult to measure for comfort.'' He said that his customers were exercising more and that the shirt's fit had to reflect this. He is not worried about customer reaction to scanners, he said.

Neither is Ms. Chase, who is searching for capital to open her Atlanta scanning center and a related Web site. Describing her test of a scanner, she said: ''It's almost like a carnival ride. The equipment is draped in black theatrical cloth to keep out the light. You go in, get down to your underwear, put your feet on the white marks and press the button. Lights flash, music plays -- it only takes a few seconds -- and you have all the data the pattern-making software needs for a custom fit.''

Ms. Chase got the idea for her business in part from observing her two daughters. ''They both have the same measurements -- waist, hips, bust -- but there are very few items that they can trade back and forth,'' she said. ''They don't look good in the same clothes. With 3-D, we'll have a better way of knowing how we actually look in the clothes we want to buy.''

Body scanners are crucial to made-to-measure clothing for the masses; the technology takes measurements so patterns can be altered for individual customers.

''Traditionally, tailors have taken these measurements for their own pattern-altering methods,'' said David Bruner, manager of research and development at [TC]2 , ''but when you compare one tailor's measurements to another, it turns out each is making an educated guess; in fact, it's all guesswork -- the measurements are notoriously inconsistent.''

Both two- and three-dimensional scanners are being used for the body measurements that are the basis for mass customization. In England, the Computer Clothing Research unit at Nottingham Trent University has measured more than 8,000 people. The center uses a system of side profiles and front outlines that is less expensive than point-to-point three-dimensional scanning.

''We were concerned that larger ladies, say size 32, would be unwilling to expose themselves in their underwear,'' Mr. Gray said. ''But when we ran a piece on local radio two years ago, we had women queuing at the door. They said, 'No one understands our clothing problems.' They were glad to volunteer.''

Full-color three-dimensional scanning of the entire body is being used by the United States Air Force. After all, pilots wear clothing, too, and helmets. ''Everyone is interested,'' said Kathleen M. Robinette, an anthropologist and mathematician at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio who is managing a program called Caesar, for Civilian American and European Surface Anthropometry Resource, the first large-scale whole-body three-dimensional scanning project ever done. ''Now that 3-D is here,'' she said, ''We can measure bodies quickly and accurately in a way that tape measures could never accomplish. The technology will be applied in ways that haven't even been imagined yet.'' Caesar will measure 10,800 men and women of varying weights and ages, 4,000 of them in the United States and 6,800 in Europe.

''We're going to learn for the first time what we're shaped like,'' said Ms. Robinette, manager of engineering anthropometry, the study of human body measurements, for the Air Force. ''The data will help us create realistic computer mannequins to build made-to-measure garments on. It will yield many software tools for the design and production of customized clothing. But it's also going to help for better-fitting clothing in general. Right now, there are many errors as we go from the person to a flat pattern. We'll finally take away the guesswork. It may even lead to consistent sizes across brands.''

The United States military has been interested in body measurement since the 1930's because of its responsibility for uniforms and gear that must fit properly, like helmets and gas masks. ''By 1980, we agreed there had to be a better way than tape measures,'' Ms. Robinette said. ''We were disposed to 3-D automated scanning methods.''

In 1987, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base bought a head-scanning system and developed software for it.

''The scanner was being used for a 'Star Trek' movie,'' Ms. Robinette said. ''The studio was concerned with artistry, but we wanted accuracy. So we developed software not only to drive the scanner and analyze the data but for applications related to apparel.''

The data became the basis for things like tight-fitting fighter pilot helmets, oxygen masks and night vision goggles. ''Now we're moving on, from head scans to full-body ones,'' Ms. Robinette said. ''Our last full-scale survey was done in 1939, and a lot has changed since then: people's bodies, even our concept of fit.''

Mr. Gray, of Nottingham Trent, agrees. ''Human size and shape have changed in the McDonald's years,'' he said.

He credits a small part of the change to undergarments. ''Lycra holds things in, but not with the supportive properties of whalebone, so nipples are about five inches lower,'' he explained. ''But there's also the rest of us. Men are more round-shouldered, and almost every person we surveyed has a stomach sticking out. In general, we're not only taller than our parents -- we are fatter.''

Mr. Gray says virtual reality software would be only one of many benefits from body scanning. ''The advantages will come as well from understanding the size of people and making patterns better,'' he said. ''As the body grows, different bits grow at different rates. Gravity alone means a bigger bust is lower than a smaller one. The stomach protrudes around the sides as well as the front. People want clothing to disguise the bad and emphasize the good; we need good data on body shape to do that.''

The Caesar project is expected to yield data useful across industries. Its partners include not only apparel companies, like Lee, Levi Strauss and Vanity Fair, but also other companies with an interest in body shapes and how they are changing, like Boeing and Caterpillar. Gary Pollack of the Society of Automotive Engineers, which is coordinating many administrative functions for the huge project, said there had been no lack of volunteers to be scanned so far. ''Everyone has the experience of sitting in a car or airplane seat that is too small,'' he said. ''People want their dimensions looked at and used.''

Digital fashion may one day provide not only physical benefits, like clothes that fit better, but also psychological benefits: shoppers may be able to to try on clothes without specifying their size or weight, which many are reluctant to do.

''We hate to say our size,'' said Linda Freedman, vice president for marketing at Modacad, a Los Angeles company that produces software for electronic commerce. ''And everyone -- well, nearly everyone -- lies about their weight. Don't you on your driver's license?''

Starting this August, Modacad will offer a CD-ROM intended to let young women shop for clothes by using 3-D models of different body types to try on their selections. ''We ask them to choose a shape, but we don't use words like 'pear-shaped' or any other expressions like that. I'm a pear, myself, but I don't want to be called one,'' Ms. Freedman said.

So far, digital fashion has produced Kevlar-lined suit jackets that don't rub a bodyguard's chest and snug-fitting helmets and gas masks that would please even Darth Vader. As to whether scanning and virtual try-ons will transform cabbage leaves into Cary Grants -- given a technology that routinely messes up our monthly bills and crashes when loaded with too many Web sites -- it's entirely possible we'll end up looking more like Charlie Chaplin than the Prince of Wales.